India's top woman shuttler Saina Nehwal may have won a number of titles in her badminton career, but her performance at the World Championships has been less than impressive.
Saina has not progressed beyond the quarter final stage in the competition, hence the second seed will be determined to emerge triumphant when the World Championships take place in Jakarta, Indonesia from 10 August.
The competition is not going to be an easy for anyone, with top badminton players from around the world participating in the mega event.
Saina's coach Vinay Kumar feels that the World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, will be an open battle.
The Chinese players, who have dominated the badminton circuit, are not in the greatest of form as their performance in the last few months suggest resulting in only one Chinese -- Li Xuerui -- being seeded in the top five of the competition.
Spain's Carolina Marin is the top seed in the competition.
Players such as Ratchanok Intanon from Thailand, who has been playing some good badminton, will be another major contender in the World Championships. The quality of game during the Championships is expected to be top notch.
"This World Championship will be an open and interesting battle because the Chinese girls have not been successful for the last ten months," PTI quoted coach Vimal Kumar as saying.
"In the last one year - after the Asian Games - majority of the international games were won by four girls - Saina, Carolina Marin (Spain), Tai Tzu-ying (Chinese Taipei) and Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand) - these are the four girls that really dominated."
Saina Nehwal had earlier stated that she has a tough draw ahead of her and Viany Kumar also echoed on the same lines, given that both Japan's Sayaka Takahashi and China's Wang Yihan are in the same half. Kumar feels that Saina has to concentrate one game at a time.
"Saina has worked hard but it is a tough draw for her, because she is likely to face Japan's Takahashi in the prequarters and in the next stage, China's Wang Yihan.
"All the top players are expected to give tough fight as they had five to six weeks of time for preparing for the big event. She has to take one match at a time," said Kumar.
If Saina Newhal wants to clinch her first World Championships, she has to defeat the best in the business and coach Kumar feels Saina is tougher than her opponents.
"Her (Saina) rivals are good players and very unpredictable, but Saina is mentally tougher than them. She also doing physically well. These factors should help her to do well in the World Championships," Kumar said.
Apart from Saina Nehwal, India will also have high hopes from Kidambi Srikanth in the men's singles, where the lanky Indian is seeded third.
